Sunday, January 5, 2025

Let them eat sponge cake: we watched Meghan Markle’s cooking show trailer so you don’t have to

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Imagine you’re about to host friends for dinner. How would you go about it?

It’s simple. You start in the lush, verdant garden that abuts your estate, strolling through rows of ripe, juicy berries, gathering tomatoes, squash blossoms and jewel-toned lettuce leaves in a dainty wicker basket. Then you stop by an apiary and collect fresh honey.

Make sure you have roughly seven acres’ worth of edible flowers on hand to decorate the elaborate salads, doughnuts and beverages you will serve your guests, all of whom are fabulously wealthy and famous celebrities.

I don’t even know why I’m telling you this, it’s so obvious. Also, your husband is a prince.

If this wasn’t all immediately obvious to you – wow, embarrassing! – don’t worry. This week, the trailer dropped for Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex’s new Netflix show, With Love, Meghan, which premieres on 15 January. According to Netflix, the series, produced by the duchess, “reimagines the genre of lifestyle programming” by “blending practical how-to’s and candid conversations with friends, new and old”.

“We’re not in the pursuit of perfection,” Meghan assures us from somewhere deep inside a Nancy Meyers-esque farmhouse kitchen the size of a small airplane hangar. “We’re in the pursuit of joy!” According to Elle Decor, the Thermador stove and range seen in the trailer could set one back anywhere from $12,000 to $16,000.

The trailer, which looks like a “quiet luxury” Pinterest board come to life, is a symphony of beige: beige sweaters, beige hummus, beige focaccia, personalized beige candles and an assortment of beige flowers. “I see what color I gravitate to, and everything goes from there,” Meghan says, re: beige flower arrangements.

There are a few non-beige things, too: a single carrot slices lengthwise, caprese toasts made to look like ladybugs and plump raspberries on top of a three-layer cake that Meghan serves to actor Mindy Kaling, who declares it “probably one of the most glamorous moments of my life”. Kaling has been to multiple Met Galas and Oscar parties, but a slice of Victoria sponge is nice too.

There are also several shots of Guy, Meghan’s elderly beagle, who I hope gets at least three hours of uninterrupted airtime. He is also kind of beige.

The series was not filmed at Meghan and Harry’s $14.6m Tuscan-inspired estate but a few miles away at the $8m Montecito estate of philanthropists Tom and Sherrie Cipolla. A cheaper, more relatable backdrop.

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Online, reactions to the trailer have been … mixed.

“OMG. She is darling. Just the loveliest. Cannot wait for this,” one commenter wrote in response to a Deadline article about the series.

“Who is this show for? It’s targeted to people with a ton of expendable income and time. Feel it comes off as tone deaf and pushes the narrative of elite classicism [sic]” wrote another.

“What in the Joanna Gaines cosplay is this?” asked one Reddit user, referencing the HGTV host and farmhouse chic interior decorator.

Who is this show for? It’s a good question. Perhaps it’s for those drawn to the trad wife aesthetic, but who aren’t quite ready to go full Ballerina Farm. Maybe it’s a launchpad for American Riviera Orchard, Meghan’s brand of jams and nut butters that she launched in 2024 and has yet to produce any content or products.

It’s certainly for Netflix, with whom Meghan and Prince Harry’s production company, Archewell Productions, signed a $100m contract. Ah, the quaint pursuit of joy!

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